Sherwood Forest Montessori School

The Sherwood Forest Montessori School has been experiencing poor drainage and standing water in their parking lot, causing an inconvenience for students, teachers, parents and visitors when entering the school. Consistent with the Montessori’s mission, of “all experiences are learning”, the school desired to use the parking lot as a teaching demonstration area. Because of our prior experience and commitment to LID, English + Associates was asked to renovate the school’s parking area by designing a green solution to their existing drainage issues. Our design strategy includes pervious pavers that allow rainwater to flow into a below-ground water collection rain tank. Water is also channeled to the rainwater collection tank via vegetated bioswales, passing through an infiltration basin that allows the runoff from the parking area to be naturally filtered prior to collection. The water collected is utilized to irrigate the native landscaping.

Additionally, the parking area has been redesigned to more efficiently and safely accommodate drop-off and pick-up traffic, as well as maximizing the parking count.